Sunday, October 29, 2017

Merciless Death - Sick Sanctities (1993)

Merciless Death started to shock the audience already in the mid '80s with their wild thrash hammering as one of the earliest Polish extreme metal bands. And of course the communist authories were not so pleased to hear that, so their names appeared on their black list very soon. After several complicated years and a system change the debut of the legendary band finally came out.
Their first demo "Eternal Condemnation" sounded quite stunning already, and proved that Merciless Death deserves wider attention in the extreme scene. After the long break it seemed like they didn't lose anything from their intensiveness, "Sick Sanctities" was updated to the actual death metal tendencies, as the second demo, "Holocaust" predicted. The thrash basics remained, and the actual influences turned their music way more aggressive. Suddenly appearing light melodies compensing the speed of their music by creating a contrast. It's not a young rebel band anymore that could be heard on this album, but skillful musicians. Even though "Sick Sanctities" came out a bit late, it belongs to the cult classics of the early '90s.